Love Must Be Sincere: Worship Through Wholehearted Service

The gospel is not, hey, if you love people really well, you'll get to heaven. That's not the gospel. The gospel is Jesus loved you when you were unlovable and he loved you so much he gave his life for you That he laid down his life for the forgiveness of your sins so that if you believe in him, you can have eternal life and now, only now can you begin to learn to love others the way that he's loved you. That's the gospel message. And so again, I know that I was throwing so much at you this morning. But depending on who you are, your response to this could be very broad. But at the core of it is number one, realize that you are loved. Receive the love of Christ. And two, find out in your life what it looks like to sincerely love the people around you. This is your true and proper worship. [01:09:22] (63 seconds)  #ReceiveLove

The next thing he says is he says, honor one another above yourselves. This was all a setup. Last week he said, don't think too highly of yourself. This week he says, honor others above yourselves. What does the word honor mean? It means to place value on. Meaning, place value on other people and treat them as if they're more valuable than you. That doesn't mean that they are. It just means that in the way that we treat other people, we're recognizing the inherent value that God has given them. It's not a value based on what they can contribute to your life. It's not a value based on their wealth or their reputation or whether or not they can help you climb some sort of ladder. It's a value that is given to them by God as people who bear his image. [00:45:59] (49 seconds)  #HonorTheirValue

And Jesus says, no. Honor one another as better than yourselves. Which means, when you're sitting across from someone who you believe has nothing to better your life, you're called to love them and treat them with respect and serve them even if it doesn't help you. I would argue especially if it doesn't help you. Because Jesus served us and it did nothing for him and it did everything for us. We're walking in his footsteps. This is how we love sincerely. Sincere love treats others according to the value given to them by God. Do you treat everyone with that value? [00:48:07] (46 seconds)  #HonorAsBetter

We're gonna start at the top again. He says, never be lacking in zeal, keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. In other words, in your service, let me put it this way, when you serve people out of a love for Christ, you are actually serving the Lord. Do you understand that? Like like like we have this idea of serving God as like I'm burning incense and I'm praying the prayers and I'm reading my bible. Sure, that's part of it. But when you serve others out of your love for Christ, you are worshipping God and serving God. He receives the treatment that you extend to others personally. That's how he receives it. So next week when we get into serve day and we go out and we're joyfully serving people in our community who can do nothing for us, God receives that as worship. It's beautiful to him. [00:49:10] (52 seconds)  #ServeAsWorship